Batting on all 5 days of a Test

This is one of the obscure records which cannot be found through Statsguru. It is however listed in the statistics section of Cricinfo. This is how it stands on the evening of Feb 7, the 4th day of the Zim-WI Test at Bulawayo:

Now KC Brathwaite and T Chanderpaul have batted on all 4 days so far, and will resume batting on the 5th morning. So they will also be added to this list. This will be the first occasion when two batsmen have batted together on all 5 days of a test.

India is well represented here by Jaisimha, Shastri and Pujara.

Other notes: Gary Ballance scored a century on debut for Zimbabwe. He had earlier scored 4 centuries for England. He joins Kepler Wessels in scoring centuries for two countries.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/gary-ballance-232438

Also see:https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283699.html

for a full list of those who played Tests for two countries.

Update: Brathwaite and Chanderpaul were duly added to the list above:

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283161.html

Century on debut and never again (May 2021)

Scoring a century on Test debut is not as difficult as one may think. As many as 108 players have scored 110 centuries on their Test debut, including LG Rowe and Yasir Hameed who scored centuries in both innings.

There are several who failed to score a century after their debut. The full list (up to 15/05/2021) is given below.

Players can drop off this list (as Fawad Alam did after over 11 years). Some current players (from PP Shaw downwards) can be reasonably expected to score another century sooner or later.

The most Tests played here are 25 by Yasir Hameed and 24 by L Amarnath. The latter was an useful bowler and a relatively better captain (by Indian standards of those days).

The most 50s scored after debut are 8 by Yasir Hameed and 7 by SK Raina. The latter was more successful in limited-overs matches, and was one of the first to score a century in a T20I.

Now we look at those who never crossed 50 after their debut.

Ganteaume played in only one innings. RE Redmond is not here as he scored a century and a fifty in his only Test.

The most Tests played among these players are 12 by van Zyl and 10 by DR Smith.

Fawad Alam (again!) got off this list after over 11 years.

There do not seem to be any current players here.

Rohit Sharma’s twin centuries

Rohit Sharma’s 176 and 127 marks the 86th occasion of two centuries in an innings in all Tests. He is the 70th batsman to achieve this, as several have done so on 2 or 3 occasions.

Among Indian players we have him as the 6th player on the 9th occasion:

Among those who opened in both innings, he is the 24th to do so on the 30th occasion.

He became the first to  score a century in both innings while opening for the first time.

We know that the only two to score centuries in both innings on debut are Lawrence Rowe and Yasir Hameed. They both batted at No 3.

CG Greenidge had a near miss with 93 and 107 on debut vs Ind at Bengaluru on 22/11/1974 where he opened. Similarly for AJ Strauss with 112 and 83 on debut vs NZ at Lord’s on 20/05/2004. Then there was Wajahatullah Wasti who scored 133 and 121* while opening in his second Test, though he had opened in the second innings of his debut Test.

Rohit Sharma had scored 177 on debut vs WI at Kolkata on 06/11/2013 and 111* in his next innings in his 2nd Test. He batted at No 6 in those innings.

He scored 13 sixes in this match (6 +7). This is a record in all Tests, surpassing the record set by Wasim Akram.

The previous record for India was 8 by NS Sidhu in his 124 vs SL at Lucknow on 18/01/1994.

Finally, this was the 58th instance of  scoring over 300 in a Test match. The 8 Indians who have achieved this on 9 occasions are:

 

Highest maiden Test centuries by Indians

Mayank Agarwal became the 4th Indian Test player whose maiden Test century was a double. Shikhar Dhawan’s 187 is the highest by an Indian on debut, followed by RG Sharma’s 177.

More on this topic:

Note the tragic case of Karun Nair. Perhaps he will soon get a chance to redress matters.

Also see this link for all Test players whose maiden century was 200 or more:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/230132.html

 

Hamilton Masakadza at Hamilton

Today (Sep 20) marked the last international appearance of Hamilton Masakadza, who captained Zimbabwe in this T20I match.

As you can see, he played a major role in the victory:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/19449/scorecard/1197144/afghanistan-vs-zimbabwe-5th-match-bangladesh-twenty20-tri-series

This was Zimbabwe’s first T20I victory against Afghanistan.

More details about his career:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe/content/player/55608.html

He made his debut in 2001. At that time he was a little short of his 18th birthday, and was then the youngest to make a century on debut. Later this record was taken by M Ashraful.

He has played in 38 Tests, 209 ODIs and 66 T20Is.

He played only one Test in New Zealand, which was not at Hamilton.

His ODI career was somewhat more satisfactory, as he did play one ODI at Hamilton during the 2015 World Cup. While Zimbabwe did lose to South Africa, he was top scorer with 80:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8039/scorecard/656403/south-africa-vs-zimbabwe-3rd-match-pool-b-icc-cricket-world-cup-2014-15

He also played precisely one T20I at Hamilton in 2012. Here Zimbabwe lost to New Zealand, though he did score a fifty:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/12620/scorecard/520596/new-zealand-vs-zimbabwe-2nd-t20i-zimbabwe-tour-of-new-zealand-2011-12

We now turn to his brothers who also played for Zimbabwe.

Shingirai Winston Masakadza played in 5 Tests, 16 ODIs and 7 T20Is. While he did not have a city in his name, he did play one T20I at Hamilton.

Then came Wellington Pedzisai Masakadza . He played one Test, 17 ODIs and 9 T20Is. Let us see if he got to play at Wellington.

However, none of his matches were in New Zealand.

 

Duck and fifty-plus on Test debut

February 12, 2019 is Gundappa Viswanath’s 70th birthday. And the 50th anniversary of his Test debut comes up later in 2019. So it is a good time to review the history of those who scored a century and duck on debut.

This club has only 4 members:

Note that Viswanath was the first member of this club, with a duck followed by a century on his debut. The only other member of this sub–group is Mohammad Wasim.

Then there is AC Hudson and current player KK Jennings who scored a century followed by a duck on debut.

There have been a total of 166 instances of a century and duck in the same Test, starting with WL Murdoch (0 and 153* in 1880) and ending with UT Khwaja (0 and 101* at Canberra in 2019).

We also look at those who scored a duck and 50+ on debut:

From India, there are only Viswanath, DJ Gandhi and GH Vihari.

Against India, there are captain Tony Lewis (1972), the little-known Australian GR Robertson in 1998, Jennings and Dawson in the same series in 2016 and Roshan Silva in 2017.

Those who narrowly missed a century would be Colin Milburn (94 in 1966) and Zulqarnain Haider (88 in his only Test in 2010).

 

 

Alastair Cook’s career-1

In the next few days, much will be written about Alastair Cook’s career and records. Here, we look back at his Test debut which was against India in 2006:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/14681/scorecard/239025/india-vs-england-1st-test-england-tour-of-india-2005-06

Other debutants included Monty Panesar and S. Sreesanth, who remained in the headlines one way or another for a period almost as long as Cook’s career.

Cook is one of a handful of players to have scored two fifties on Test debut. This is somewhat rarer than scoring a century on debut.

While some on this list are counted among the all-time greats, others did not have much of a career and are completely forgotten.

Centuries in both innings-2 (Revised 2019)

Hope you read the first part: https://abn397.wordpress.com/…/07/centuries-in-both-inning…/

A few other points of interest from the main table: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;opposition=1;opposition=2;opposition=25;opposition=29;opposition=3;opposition=4;opposition=40;opposition=5;opposition=6;opposition=7;opposition=8;opposition=9;orderby=start;qualmin1=2;qualval1=hundreds;size=100;spanmax1=25+Oct+2019;spanval1=span;team=1;team=2;team=25;team=29;team=3;team=4;team=40;team=5;team=6;team=7;team=8;team=9;template=results;type=batting;view=match

CAG Russell (1923) made centuries in each innings in his last Test.

These players made their only two centuries in the same Test:

J Moroney (Aus)-1950

Wajahatullah Wasti (Pak)-1999

Yasir Hameed (Pak)-2003 (on debut)

PG Fulton (NZ)-2013

SD Hope (WI)-2016

Hope is the only current player and may add to his tally of centuries.

PA da Silva (SL) is the only one with unbeaten centuries in both innings (1997).

Apart from those listed above, these players made their first two centuries in the same Test:

W Bardsley (Aus)-1909 Total 6 centuries

VS Hazare (Ind)-1948 Total 7

LG Rowe (WI)-1972 on debut-Total 7

GP Howarth (NZ)-1978 Total 6

LRD Mendis (SL)-1982 Total 4

PJ Hughes (Aus)-2009 Total 3

Mendis made 105 and 105, where 105 is the highest score made in both innings.

While Sachin Tendulkar has scored the most centuries (51), he never made centuries in both innings. His immediate followers Kallis (45) and Ponting (41) have done so.

25 or more Test centuries without ever making a century in both innings:

SR Tendulkar             51

M Jayawardene         34

AN Cook                      33

S Chanderpaul           30

MJ Clarke                    28

GC Smith                     27